CHILDREN · FICTION
Alan Macdonald
Also known as: et al Alan MacDonald
Alan Macdonald is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from The University of Michigan in 1970. Webpage
IT IS THE BIRTHPLACE OF DEMONS.
— from Aliens
Most acclaimed
Starstruck
Retired action star Levi Pritchard has made a quiet life for himself in the sleepy logging town of Bluewater Bay, Washington. But then Hollywood comes to film the wildly popular television series Wolf's Landing, and Bluewater Bay isn't so sleepy anymore. His retirement doesn't stick, either, because he's offered a part on the show - exactly the kind of complex role he'd always wanted, one that would prove him more than a glorified stuntman. The only catch? He has to stay in the closet - no matter how attractive he finds his co-star. Carter Samuels is the critically-acclaimed male lead on Wolf's Landing. And now, the man who inspired him to take up acting - and made him realize he's gay - is joining the cast, and sparks fly between them instantly. But Carter is out and proud and determined to stay true to himself. Remaining just friends is the only thing to do, as both the studio and Levi's disapproving, dysfunctional family keep reminding them. Except their friendship deepens by the day, tempting them with what they can't have but both desperately need.
Aliens
57 years after Ellen Ripley survived an an encounter with an unknown alien lifeform that slaughtered her ship-mates abord the interstellar cargo ship Nostromo, she is discovered and revived from hypersleep to discover that her claims of a "xenomorph" are not only disbelieved, but considered pure fantasy. A few weeks later, events on the planet that she had visited before cause her former employers, "Wayland Yutani", to request her to accompany a squad of Colonial Marines back to the windblown hell known as LV-426. What she and the Colonial Marines find there is unbelievably terrifying...
Titanic
The story of the sinking of the Titanic based on first hand accounts collected in the days and weeks following the disaster. The story of the Titanic is now well known. But in the months following the disaster wild speculation was rife. On Thursday 22 May 1912, a mere 37 days after the sinking, respected London publisher Grant Richards, delivered Filson Young's book to booksellers around the capital. It was the first attempt to plot the demise of the unsinkable ship from a well-respected writer who had already argued in the light of the Oceana sinking, for proper use of the wireless on board ships. Both Filson and Grant knew victims of the sinking and both worked hard to gather first-hand testimony to use in the book. Much of his telling of the story still stands today and his speculations about the feeling of daily life aboard the doomed ship are used in books and films on the subject.